Friday, July 15, 2016

ANTI-GAMBLING APPEAL

Gambling is synonymous to covetousness.Gambling equals avarice.Gambling is synonymous to greed.Gambling promotes the mentality of
chance.Gambling implants the spirit of
dependence on luck, the reading of signs, the interpretation of dreams.Gambling cultivates indolence.Gambling divests the gamblers of good
name.Gambling creates addicts.Gambling causes poverty.Gambling generates crimes.Gambling is contra sweat and industry.Gambling impoverishes individuals, destroys
families and at times even causes social disharmony.

More.Gambling is an
ethical liability, a moral cancer.Gambling exploits the gamblers.Gambling enriches the gambling operators.Gambling corrupts not few local and national
public officials.Gambling foments
crimes.Gambling destroys decency, sound
value system, laudable cultural traits.Gambling usually comes with guns and goons for the sake of gold.Gambling is a masquerade for the promotion of
social action, the granting of social benefits, the pursuit of social
development as justifications.Gambling
makes the end justify the means.

More.Gambling is
anything but a “Gaming” and an “Amusement” – all pretenses to the
contrary notwithstanding.Gambling
attracts gangsters, sinister characters, dubious figures.Gambling definitelyand continuously invite money launderers
specially from foreign shores.Gambling
is a haven for money lenders repaid with multiplied and multiplying interest
rates.Gambling is dangerous and not
simply difficult to counteract.Gambling
is a downright vice – be this surreptitiously run and officially approved,
grandiosely established and lavishly promoted.

More.Gambling is as
old as humanity.Hence, countering it is
both futile and silly.Gambling is in
the blood of Filipinos.Hence, getting
rid of it in the Philippines is practically killing its citizenry.Gambling is but a form of entertainment.Hence, without it, people would simply wallow
in lamentation and self-pity.Gambling
is merely a recreation.Hence, in its
absence, there would be but idleness and dejection.Gambling provides work for people.Hence without it, people would have no work
at all.One answer to all the above
allegations:Really?

It is a consolation to take notice of the fact that the new
administration has something contra gambling.No.it has neither censured much
less stopped gambling in the land.But
it already said something about doing
away with “Online Gambling” which
only a wizard could count how many, would know where they are, who are their
operators.It is now incumbent upon the
people to know and to speak whether such a presidential option simply fell on
deaf ears or in fact being acted upon.Such counter-gambling move is
good for a start.

But then what about the no less than some 33 illegal forms
of gambling in the Country – from Alpor to Video
Karera, from Loteng to Sakla, from Bookies to Hataw, from Masiao to Pares-Pares, etc., etc., etc.?Just as in the so-called Legal
Gambling”, even in such illegal gambling modalities, the Gambling Lords –
be this the government itself or private individuals – are ultimately the
winners, the beneficiaries, the victors.So sad yet so true!

Oscar Cruz

About The Blogger

Most Reverend Oscar V. Cruz, D.D. is the Archbishop-Emeritus of Lingayen-Dagupan. He is currently the Judicial Vicar of the National Tribunal of Appeals. He is a prolific writer, having published several dozen books mostly on judicial and moral matters. His most recent book is about the Social Doctrines of the Church. He also has a blog where he posts regularly. He is an avid coin collector and dabbles in woodworking art.